Let us consider her moral right under either of these points.
"_a)_ If the United States has not before this recognized the validity of the rights claimed by Japan under her Convention with China, what has happened since the Armistice that would justify us in recognizing their validity now?
"_b)_ If Germany had possessed territory, in full sovereignty, on the east coast of Asia, a right to this territory, under international law, could have been obtained by conquest.

But Germany possessed no such territory.

What then was left for Japan to acquire by conquest?
Apparently nothing but a lease extorted under compulsion from China by Germany.

I understand that international lawyers hold that such a lease, or the rights acquired, justly or unjustly, under it, cannot be acquired by conquest.
"_Third._ Suppose Germany says to us, 'We will cede our lease and all rights under it, but we will cede them back to China.' Will we recognize the justice of Japan's claims to such an extent that we will threaten Germany with further war unless she cedes these rights to Japan rather than to China?
"Again, suppose that Germany, in her hopelessness of resistance to our demands, should sign without question a clause ceding these rights to Japan, even though we know that this is so wrong that we would not fight in order to compel Germany to do it, what moral justification would we have in making Germany do this?
"_Fourth._ Stripped of all words that befog the issue, would we not, under the guise of making a treaty with Germany, really be making a treaty with Japan by which we compel one of our Allies (China) to cede against her will these things to Japan?
Would not this action be really more unjustifiable than the one which you have refused to be a party to on the Dalmatian Coast?
Because, in the latter case, the territory in dispute did not belong to one of the Allies, but to one of the Central Powers; the question in Dalmatia is as to which of two friendly powers we shall give territory taken from an enemy power; in China the question is, shall we take certain claimed rights from one friendly power in order to give them to another friendly power.
"It would seem to be advisable to call particular attention to what the Japanese mean when they say that they will return Kiao-chow to China.

They _do not_ offer to return the railway, the mines or the port, i.e., Tsingtau.